HHS Special Exposure Cohort Determination: 

The Carborundum Company, Buffalo Avenue, Niagara Falls, New York [SEC 00223] 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Determination Concerning a 

Petition to Add Members to the Special Exposure Cohort

under the 

Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 

Determination Concerning a Petition for Certain Employees from 

The Carborundum Company

Buffalo Avenue, Niagara Falls, New York
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Determination: 

The Carborundum Company, Buffalo Avenue, Niagara Falls, New York [SEC 00223]

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I. Determination

I, Eric D. Hargan, Acting Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) (HHS), have 

determined that the employees defined in Section II of this report do not meet the statutory 

criteria for addition to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC), as authorized under the Energy 

Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA), 42 U.S.C. § 

7384q. 

 November 8, 2017 [Signature on File]

Date Eric D. Hargan, Acting Secretary

 

II. Employee Class Definition

All employees who worked in any area of the Carborundum Company facility on Buffalo 

Avenue, Niagara Falls, New York, from January 1, 1943, through December 31, 1976. 

III. Decision Criteria and Recommendations

Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384q, to designate a class for addition to the SEC, the Secretary must 

determine, upon recommendation of the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health (“the 

Board”), that

(1) It is not feasible to estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation dose that the class 

received; and

(2) There is a reasonable likelihood that such radiation dose may have endangered the health 

of members of the class.

The SEC final rule states in 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(1) that it is feasible in two situations to estimate 

the radiation dose that the class received with sufficient accuracy. First, the rule states that 

radiation doses may be estimated with sufficient accuracy if the National Institute for 

Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has established that it has access to sufficient 

information to estimate the maximum radiation dose for every type of cancer for which radiation 

doses are reconstructed that could have been incurred under plausible circumstances by any 

member of the class. Alternatively, radiation doses may be estimated with sufficient accuracy if 

NIOSH has established that it has access to sufficient information to estimate the radiation doses 

of members of the class more precisely than a maximum dose estimate.

In a letter received by the Secretary on May 10, 2017, the Board, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384q, 

agreed with the following NIOSH findings, effectively advising the Secretary that radiation doses 

can be reconstructed with sufficient accuracy for this class of employees at the Carborundum 

Company in accordance with provisions of EEOICPA and the SEC final rule. 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Determination: 

The Carborundum Company, Buffalo Avenue, Niagara Falls, New York [SEC 00223]

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IV. Determination Findings

Feasibility of Estimating Radiation Doses with Sufficient Accuracy

The Secretary established the feasibility determination for the class of employees covered by this 

report based upon the findings summarized below: 

• NIOSH has determined there are two distinct Atomic Weapons Employers (AWE) operational 

and residual contamination periods for the Carborundum Company. During the first 

operational period, which took place from June through September 1943, Carborundum 

developed techniques for grinding uranium metal. During the second operational period, 

which took place from January 1959 through December 1967, Carborundum developed 

ceramic nuclear fuel materials using uranium and plutonium. NIOSH did not find evidence 

that the Carborundum facility was decontaminated after the AWE operational periods. 

Therefore, the periods from October 1943 through December 1958, and January 1968 through 

December 1976 (the end of the petitioned period) are residual contamination periods. 

• NIOSH has determined that the principal sources of internal radiation doses at the 

Carborundum Company for members of the class under evaluation were the potential 

inhalation and ingestion of plutonium and natural, depleted, and enriched uranium. 

• NIOSH has not located any radiological monitoring information for the first AWE operational 

period. However, radiological monitoring data are available for many other facilities that 

performed similar operations on uranium metal. Using those data, NIOSH previously 

developed methods for reconstructing radiation dose from uranium metal work and published 

them in the Battelle-Technical Basis Document (TBD)-6000, Site Profiles for Atomic 

Weapons Employers That Worked Uranium Metals. These methods have been reviewed and 

approved for use by the Board for dose reconstructions at AWE sites similar to Carborundum. 

• NIOSH does not have radiological monitoring data for the first residual contamination period 

from October 1943 through December 1958. NIOSH will use Battelle-TBD-6000 and other 

previously developed methods that are published in Oak Ridge Associated Universities 

Technical Information Bulletin (OTIB)-0070, Technical Information Bulletin: Dose 

Reconstruction during Residual Radioactivity Periods at Atomic Weapons Employer 

Facilities, Revision 1, to reconstruct internal radiation doses during this period. The methods 

in OTIB-0070 have also been reviewed and approved for use by the Board. 

• NIOSH has obtained radiological air monitoring data for the uranium and plutonium activities 

during the second operational period, from January 1959 through December 1967. NIOSH 

will use those data to reconstruct internal radiation doses during Carborundum’s second 

operational period.

• In order to reconstruct internal doses for the second residual contamination period, January 

1968 through December 1976, NIOSH will estimate the contributions to those doses from
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Determination: 

The Carborundum Company, Buffalo Avenue, Niagara Falls, New York [SEC 00223]

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residual contamination remaining from each of the operational periods. NIOSH will use the 

methods from Battelle-TBD-6000 and OTIB-0070 to reconstruct internal doses due to 

contamination from the first operational period, and will use OTIB-0070 in conjunction with 

air monitoring data from the second operational period to reconstruct internal doses due to 

residual contamination in the second residual contamination period. 

• NIOSH has determined that the principal sources of external radiation doses for members of 

the evaluated class at Carborundum were photon and beta (electron) radiation associated with 

the uranium metal and the uranium and plutonium ceramic materials that were used during the 

AWE operational periods.

• Since NIOSH does not have radiological monitoring information for any of the petitioned 

periods, it will use the methods contained in the Battelle-TIB-6000 and OTIB-0070 to 

reconstruct external doses during both operational and both residual contamination periods. 

Those documents contain methods for reconstructing external doses as well as internal doses.

A review of documentation indicates that on-site medical x-rays were not required as a 

condition of employment during the first operational period.

• NIOSH will use information contained in ORAUT-OTIB-0006, Dose Reconstruction from 

Occupational Medical X-Ray Procedures, to reconstruct radiation doses for the second 

operational period at Carborundum that resulted from on-site medical screening x-rays 

required as a condition of employment. 

In conclusion: 

• NIOSH has established that it has access to sufficient information to: (1) estimate the 

maximum radiation dose, for every type of cancer for which radiation doses are reconstructed, 

that could have been incurred in plausible circumstances by any member of the class; or (2) 

estimate radiation doses more precisely than an estimate of maximum dose. Information 

available to NIOSH is sufficient to estimate the maximum internal and external potential 

exposure to members of the evaluated class under plausible circumstances during the 

specified time period from January 1, 1943, through December 31, 1976. 

• The Board concurs with NIOSH's determination that dose reconstruction is feasible for the 

evaluated class of Carborundum Company workers during the specified time period from

January 1, 1943, through December 31, 1976, and therefore should not be added to the SEC. 

Health Endangerment 

Because the Secretary established that it is feasible to estimate with sufficient accuracy the

radiation doses encountered by Carborundum Company employees as specified in this class, a 

determination of health endangerment is not required.
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Determination: 

The Carborundum Company, Buffalo Avenue, Niagara Falls, New York [SEC 00223]

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V. Effect of the Determination

Members of the class of employees covered by this determination and their survivors continue to 

be eligible to submit claims for compensation under EEOICPA. As required for cancer claims 

covering other Department of Energy and Atomic Weapons Employer employees (or Atomic 

Weapons Employees) not included in the SEC, qualified cancer claims under Part B of EEOICPA 

for members of this class will be adjudicated by the Department of Labor, in part, on the basis of 

radiation dose reconstructions, which will be conducted by NIOSH. 

VI. Administrative Review of Determination

The determination provided in this report may be subject to an administrative review within HHS, 

pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.18(a). On the basis of such a review, if the Secretary decides to 

designate the class of employees covered by this determination, in part or in whole, as an addition 

to the SEC, the Secretary will transmit a new report to Congress providing the designation and the 

criteria and findings on which the decision was based.